Aruna D’ Souza’s lecture will focus on Lorraine O’Grady’s artwork and The Black and White Show, a conceptual project/exhibition curated by O’Grady in 1983. O’Grady’s project was a response to New York’s segregated art world by inviting 28 artists, 14 of whom were black and 14 white, to contribute artwork in black and white.  O’Grady wrote, “Achromaticity would heighten similarities and flatten differences. And it would be the first exhibit I’d seen in the still virtually segregated art world with enough black presence to create dialogue.” O’Grady’s black-and-white exhibition addressed color as a formal component with social and political implications.